High Miles
2013-01-25 22:01:13 UTC
A prominent British health official has declared the rise of
antibiotic-resistant superbugs so grave a threat that the world is now
facing an "apocalyptic scenario" in which people die of routine infections.
Dame Sally Davies, the U.K.'s chief medical officer (a role equivalent
to the U.S. surgeon general), warned Parliament that contagious
antibiotic-resistant disease
<http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/281-what-is-a-superbug.html> is an
imminent crisis and should be included on the government's official
register of possible national emergencies, right next to terrorist
attacks and natural disasters, according to the Guardian
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/jan/23/antibiotic-resistant-diseases-apocalyptic-threat>.
Superbugs are disease-causing bacteria that have evolved to have
defenses against antibiotic drugs. Over the years, some strains of
bacteria have become so robust they resist almost every weapon in our
drug armamentarium.
"There are few public health issues of potentially greater importance
for society than antibiotic resistance," Davies told the Guardian. And
she pulled no punches when speaking to Parliament: "We need to get our
act together in this country," the Guardian quoted her as saying.
Davies is hardly the first to sound the alarm on the spread of
antibiotic-resistant infections. "It certainly would — and has —
resulted in a much greater risk of dying of infection," Dr. Brad
Spellberg, assistant professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of
Medicine at UCLA, told LiveScience. [5 Ways Computers Boost Drug
Discovery
<http://www.livescience.com/22786-computers-drug-design-nigms.html>]
"We already are seeing infections that are untreatable," Spellberg said.
Besides the rising threats of antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis and
gonorrhea, he cited three bacterial infections of particular concern:
/Acinetobacter/ /baumannii/, /Pseudomonas aeruginosa/ and /Klebsiella/
/pneumonia./
Each of these bacteria can cause a number of infectious diseases,
including pneumonia, septicemia and urinary tract infections. In the
case of /Klebsiella/, Spellberg noted, there's just one highly toxic
drug left, and it's effective only about half the time it's used.
It's equally alarming that antibiotic drug development
<http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/274-what-do-antibiotics-do.html> is
at a virtual standstill, he said. "The pipeline is barren," partly
because pharmaceutical companies have few incentives for developing
antibiotics that people take for just a few days or weeks, Spellberg said.
Instead, drugmakers focus on research into drugs that are taken for
years to treat chronic conditions like arthritis or heart disease.
Davies told Parliament, "There is a broken market model for making new
antibiotics."
While Spellberg is careful to add some perspective to the issue – "I
don't think we should be alarmist" – he emphasizes that a "massive
crisis" is looming if we leave unaddressed the continued rise in
antibiotic-resistant superbugs, since it could result in a "catastrophic
drop in quality of life."
antibiotic-resistant superbugs so grave a threat that the world is now
facing an "apocalyptic scenario" in which people die of routine infections.
Dame Sally Davies, the U.K.'s chief medical officer (a role equivalent
to the U.S. surgeon general), warned Parliament that contagious
antibiotic-resistant disease
<http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/281-what-is-a-superbug.html> is an
imminent crisis and should be included on the government's official
register of possible national emergencies, right next to terrorist
attacks and natural disasters, according to the Guardian
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/jan/23/antibiotic-resistant-diseases-apocalyptic-threat>.
Superbugs are disease-causing bacteria that have evolved to have
defenses against antibiotic drugs. Over the years, some strains of
bacteria have become so robust they resist almost every weapon in our
drug armamentarium.
"There are few public health issues of potentially greater importance
for society than antibiotic resistance," Davies told the Guardian. And
she pulled no punches when speaking to Parliament: "We need to get our
act together in this country," the Guardian quoted her as saying.
Davies is hardly the first to sound the alarm on the spread of
antibiotic-resistant infections. "It certainly would — and has —
resulted in a much greater risk of dying of infection," Dr. Brad
Spellberg, assistant professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of
Medicine at UCLA, told LiveScience. [5 Ways Computers Boost Drug
Discovery
<http://www.livescience.com/22786-computers-drug-design-nigms.html>]
"We already are seeing infections that are untreatable," Spellberg said.
Besides the rising threats of antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis and
gonorrhea, he cited three bacterial infections of particular concern:
/Acinetobacter/ /baumannii/, /Pseudomonas aeruginosa/ and /Klebsiella/
/pneumonia./
Each of these bacteria can cause a number of infectious diseases,
including pneumonia, septicemia and urinary tract infections. In the
case of /Klebsiella/, Spellberg noted, there's just one highly toxic
drug left, and it's effective only about half the time it's used.
It's equally alarming that antibiotic drug development
<http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/274-what-do-antibiotics-do.html> is
at a virtual standstill, he said. "The pipeline is barren," partly
because pharmaceutical companies have few incentives for developing
antibiotics that people take for just a few days or weeks, Spellberg said.
Instead, drugmakers focus on research into drugs that are taken for
years to treat chronic conditions like arthritis or heart disease.
Davies told Parliament, "There is a broken market model for making new
antibiotics."
While Spellberg is careful to add some perspective to the issue – "I
don't think we should be alarmist" – he emphasizes that a "massive
crisis" is looming if we leave unaddressed the continued rise in
antibiotic-resistant superbugs, since it could result in a "catastrophic
drop in quality of life."